The sampling time points were the same as in a previous study of liver regeneration after PHx [21] using the same microarray platform allowing the direct comparison of gene expression profiles found Selleck PR 171 in the present experiments with the former. Biopsies were placed immediately in RNAlater (Ambion®). Blood extraction was performed SB431542 mouse before biopsy sampling. Samples were taken from the portal vein, femoral artery, and hepatic vein draining both sides of the liver. Aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT), alanine aminotransferase (ALAT), glutamyl transpeptidase (GT), glucose, bilirubin (Bil) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels were quantified by calorimetric, ultraviolet-photometric, and HPLC analysis

(Roche, PerkinElmer). For cytokine analysis, a multiplex kit was developed including four different cytokines; TNF-α, IL-1α, IL-6

and IL-10. SB202190 Serum samples was analyzed in duplicates using the Luminex 200™ with the Bioplex manager software (BioRad, Hercules, CA) [22]. In the sham series, liver biopsies were taken from segments II, III and IV and blood was sampled from the same locations at the same time points as in the shunted animals. In the chronic series, only peroperative arterial blood gas samples were taken (directly from the aorta) to monitor respiratory status. Histological assessment To evaluate the long-term (3 weeks) effects of arterial hyperperfusion on the liver parenchyma we took biopsies from both the shunted and the portally perfused sides of the liver before and after shunting. Specimens were fixed in buffered formalin, paraffin embedded, and stained with hematoxylin-eosin (HE) to evaluate tissue architecture. To evaluate proliferative activity, sections were stained with Ki67 and phosphohistone H3. The proliferative index was estimated by counting the

dipyridamole number of Ki67 positive cells relative to the number of non-stained hepatocytes per liver lobuli. Connective tissue distribution was studied using reticulin staining. An independent pathologist (EM) reviewed the sections in a blinded manner. Microarray analysis Two-color microarray analyses of the samples from the acute series were conducted to identify genes being significantly differentially expressed between the different time-points. The microarray experiment was conducted as a common reference design using liver total-RNA purified from an unrelated animal as the reference. Total-RNA was extracted and aminoallyl-cDNA (aa-cDNA) was synthesized from 20 μg of total-RNA. The reference samples were labeled with Alexa 488 and individual samples were labelled with Alexa 594. The samples were hybridized to the pig array DIAS_PIG_55K3, which consist of 26,879 PCR products amplified from unique cDNA clones. Following hybridization, washing and drying, the slides were scanned and the median intensities were computed. Statistical analysis was carried out in the R computing environment using the Bioconductor package Limma.